by Alemayehu G. Mariam
A CALL TO ACTION
Special note and request: I am asking my readers in
the United States, particularly Ethiopian Americans in the great State
of Texas and in the Washington metropolitan area, to join me in
advocating against confirmation of Gayle Smith who has been nominated to
head the USAID.
The United States Senate has independent and full authority to confirm or reject Gayle Smith’s nomination.
I specifically urge Ethiopian American constituents of Senator Ted
Cruz to contact one of his district offices or Senate office in
Washington, D.C. and register their strong opposition to Smith’s
confirmation.
For a list of Senator Cruz’s district offices in Texas and Washington, D.C.,
CLICK HERE.
I also call upon all Ethiopian Americans who believe in freedom,
democracy and human rights to phone, write, email and fax their
Senators’ local or Washington offices and register their strong
opposition to Ms. Smith confirmation.
To contact your United States Senators,
CLICK HERE.
“The President…shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,
shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges
of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose
Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be
established by Law….” United States Constitution, Article II, section 2,
Clause 2.
As I have set forth below in my letter to Senator Ted Cruz, Ms.
Smith’s confirmation to head USAID will be a disaster for Africa and an
unmitigated catastrophe for Ethiopia.
Let us use the U.S. Constitution and petition our Government to do the right thing:
REJECT THE NOMINATION OF GAYLE SMITH!
“You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed
fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable
and transform even the biggest nation.”
― Marian Wright Edelman
======================================
September 18, 2015
Senator Ted Cruz
U.S. Senate
Suite SR-404
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Cruz:
I refer to your
Letter to President Barack Obama dated July 16, 2015.
In that Letter, you indicated your intention “to block all nominees
for the Department of State” until the President provided you certain
assurances.
The President has failed to provide you the assurances you requested.
As you pledged in your Letter, I am writing to seek your support in
blocking the confirmation of Gayle Smith as Administrator of the U.S.
Agency for International Development.
On June 17, 2015, Ms. Smith’s confirmation was held before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate has yet to act on her
nomination.
I am opposed to Ms. Smith’s nomination.
On May 12, 2015, I registered my objection to Ms. Smith’s confirmation in The Hill in my op-ed piece, “
The Senate should not confirm Gayle Smith”.
I believe Ms. Smith is the wrong choice for the job.
I specifically object to Ms. Smith’s confirmation because of 1) her
poor record in promoting and supporting democracy, freedom and human
rights in Africa, and 2) for her unwavering support for African
dictators for the past three decades and 3) for her foreign policy
approach which treats Africans as welfare aid recipients who must be
perpetually tethered to the pockets of hard working American tax payers.
Ms. Smith subscribes to a foreign policy of welfare, aid handouts and
alms-giving to Africa generously supported by American taxpayers. In
2014, American tax payers through USAID spent over $5 billion in Africa
on various health and development programs.
What have American tax payers received for the billions of dollars they have spent in Africa through USAID?
What have American tax payers received for the billions of dollars they have spent in Ethiopia through USAID?
No one really knows. Not even USAID!
In 2010, the U.S. State Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
concluded its “audit
was unable to determine whether the results reported in
USAID/Ethiopia’s Performance Plan and Report were valid because mission
staff could neither explain how the results were derived nor provide
support for those reported results.” (“Audit of USAID/Ethiopia’s
Agricultural Sector Productivity Activities (Audit Report No.
4-6663-10-003-P (March 30, 2010, p. 1″).
In 2014, the OIG
concluded
that the USAID HIV project in Ethiopia experienced significant and
undue delays and was plagued by poor planning, lack of oversight and
monitoring and complete absence of quality control. (AUDIT OF
USAID/ETHIOPIA’S HIV CARE AND TREATMENT ACTIVITIES, AUDIT REPORT NO.
4-663-14-006-P (MAY 23, 2014.) In one USAID-funded hospital, the OIG
(with photographs) “discovered several cartons of food supplements that
mice had also chewed on. There were mouse droppings in both rooms where
food was stored. The rooms were damp and dirty; one had no windows or
lighting, and the other had a leaky ceiling (p.12.))
According to
Global Financial Integrity
(GFI), “Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365, lost
US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009.”
A good chunk of the nearly $12 billion lost in illicit transfer is
American tax payer dollars given through USAID and laundered by the
leaders of the ruling regime in Ethiopia and their cronies in off shore
banks.
GFI concluded, “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter
how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and
poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit
capital leakage.”
If Ms. Smith is confirmed, the capital leakage will be capital
hemorrhage, a capital tsunami out of Ethiopia! Ethiopians will be
paddling up that famous creek without a paddle if Ms. Smith is
confirmed.
Simply stated, the OIG’s conclusions point to the incontrovertible
fact that USAID in Ethiopia has been working hand in glove with the
corrupt regime in Ethiopia and asleep at the switch, or shall I say the
spigot, as American tax dollars flowed directly out of American pockets
and into the pockets of regime officials and their crony contractors.
Confirmation of Ms. Smith to head the USAID will be an endorsement of USAID’s business-as-usual modus operandi in Ethiopia.
Confirmation of Ms. Smith to head the USAID will mean a “beggar’s feast” for the regime in Ethiopia.
You see Senator Cruz, Ms. Smith has been bosom buddies with Africa’s worst dictators for decades.
Ms. Smith has been and remains a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of some of the most ruthless dictatorships in Africa.
Ms. Smith was a staunch supporter and spin doctor of the late Meles
Zenawi, the late bloodthirsty and ruthless dictator in Ethiopia, whose
crimes against humanity have been certified by an
Inquiry Commission he personally established.
It is a little known fact that Ms. Smith was an
employee of Mr. Zenawi’s rebel organization the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the mid-1980s.
According to a May 1991 Christian Science Monitor
report, “
One of the few Westerners who speaks the Tigre language
and has had many contacts with Zenawi over a nine-year period, is Gayle
Smith, an American who worked for Tigre’s relief agency, REST, during
the 1985-6 drought.”
Ms. Smith had long “gone native” with the brutal rebel group that is today ruling Ethiopia.
Smith was a staunch defender and spin-doctor of Meles Zenawi. She is today a protector and guardian of the TPLF.
It is ironic that the TPLF, which employed Ms. Smith decades ago is today is the official regime in Ethiopia, is today
listed in the Global Terrorism Database.
The fact of the matter is that Ms. Smith has tried to humanize the
late cut-throat Marxist Meles Zenawi and his TPLF as harmless
ideologues.
Ms. Smith has tried to justify many of Zenawi’s outrageously radical
statements as “language that goes along with being a left-of-center
guerrilla organization”.
Ms. Smith has even tried to paint Zenawi as a reasonable liberal
democrat who “realizes only a broad-based coalition can govern
Ethiopia’s diverse ethnic population.”
Ms. Smith has long been a bulwark for a regime with a frightening human rights record.
The facts speak for themselves.
In 2003, Ms. Smith’s old comrade, Meles Zenawi, massacred over 400 innocent villagers in Gambella, in Western Ethiopia.
Ms. Smith was silent and turned a blind eye to the crimes against humanity committed by her old comrade-in-arms.
In 2005, Meles Zenawi ordered the massacre and shooting of hundreds
of unarmed protesters following the election that year. In the Meles
Massacres, nearly 200 unarmed protesters were killed and some 800
wounded.
Ms. Smith remained dead silent as the very graves the innocent protesters were buried in.
The Meles Massacres of 2005 were a defining moment for me, Senator Cruz.
Overnight, I was transformed from an armchair academic and pugnacious
defense lawyer into an indefatigable human rights advocate for Ethiopia
and Africa.
For the past nine years, I have written long weekly commentaries (
without missing a single week!)
exposing the crimes against humanity committed by the late Zenawi and
the crimes against humanity that continue to be committed by the TPLF
today. (My commentaries are available at almariam.com
and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam )
In 2007, Meles Zenawi ordered the indiscriminate bombing of the
Ogaden region of Ethiopia results in the deaths of tens of thousands of
innocent villagers. The massacres in the Ogaden have been described as
“genocide”.
Ms. Smith remained silent, deaf and mute in the face crimes against humanity committed by her dear friend Meles Zenawi.
As I am sure you are aware, the TPLF, the party for whom Ms. Smith
worked decades ago, this past May declared one hundred percent (100%)
victory in the parliamentary election.
In 2010, the same party declared victory by 99.6 percent.
To the shock and horror of the world, President Obama in July 2015
said, “the government of Ethiopia [which “won” the 2015 election by 100
percent] has been democratically elected.”
Ms. Smith was at the side of the President in Addis Ababa when he made the absurd declaration.
Over the past few months, a few of Ms. Smith’s personal friends and
associates have written op-ed pieces lionizing her and trying to
reinvent her a new public image as a defender of human rights. The
latest one appeared in The Hill on September 18 declaring it is “
Time for the Senate to confirm Gayle Smith.”
It is time to send back Gayle Smith’s nomination to the White house stamped, “REJECTED”.
In another forum, I have presented
ample evidence to support my opposition to Ms. Smith.
Let me restate my deep concerns that if the Senate confirms Ms.
Smith, it will be a holiday for African dictators on the American tax
payers’ dime.
I have no doubts that with news of Gayle Smith at the helm of USAID,
African dictators will be rubbing their palms and drooling on their
jackets at the very prospect of bleeding the American tax payer. They
will be like slobbering hyenas snorting a whiff of carrion.
USAID has long been a candy store for African dictators.
When Gayle Smith takes over, USAID will be a chocolate factory for African dictators.
In 2016, USAID will have some 22 billion in greenbacks to spread
around the globe. A good 25 percent plus of it will go out of the
pockets of American tax payers to line the pockets of African dictators.
Gayle Smith’s confirmation will mean one thing for sure: One small
insignificant event for the impoverished people of Africa, one giant
money-making opportunity for African dictators.
Let me also underscore my deep disappointment over the fact that Ms.
Smith believes Africa can develop and sustain itself hooked to the
life-support system bleeding American tax payers.
Ms. Smith is wrong on her views on American tax dollars in Africa.
As Dambissa Moyo, one of the most respected African policy analyst
has convincingly demonstrated, the “insidious aid culture has left
African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable
to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to
higher-quality investment.”
No one has ever escaped poverty by receiving alms or welfare payments disguised as “aid”.
What the USAID needs today is not a coddler of dictators or someone who caters to the whims and fancy of Africa’s strongmen.
The USAID needs the steady hand on the tiller.
Gayle Smith is not a steady hand on the tiller, though her
confirmation will certainly mean African dictators will have their hands
and fingers in the American tax payers’ till.
On the other hand, you are no doubt aware that USAID development
programs have been plagued by widespread allegations of fraud, waste,
abuse and corruption.
A Wall Street Journal
investigation
revealed that a significant amount of the nearly $10 billion spent by
the U.S. in Africa between 2002 and 2012 on various health projects,
including malaria and HIV control, “has been partly hijacked by
organized networks that steal large quantities of donated malaria drugs
and ship them from East to West Africa, where they end up for sale at
street markets.”
The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction in 2013 found that USAID’s of lack of effective
oversight and monitoring placed hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars
“at risk of waste, fraud and abuse.”
USAID does not need a namby-pamby leader at the helm.
USAID needs a strong consensus builder with the proven ability to resolve serious internal administrative issues.
USAID needs a visionary leader who could envision Africa holding a
plough and sickle, not an Africa with outstretched arms holding a
begging bowl for American tax payer dole out.
USAID needs a leader who can clean house, not house sit.
USAID does not need a leader who will sweep out the dirt, not hide it under the rug.
USAID does not need an administrator of welfare programs for African dictators.
USAID needs a leader with the ability and commitment to root out fraud, waste and abuse in the USAID.
If confirmed, Ms. Smith will oversee the administration of billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Africa.
Ms. Smith’s long and chummy relationship with Africa’s dictators make
it impossible for her to become a strong advocate of human rights, the
rule of law and good governance on the continent.
Ms. Smith will be a god-send for African beggar-dictators.
President Obama often invokes the metaphor of being “on the right side of history”.
Ms. Smith is on the wrong side of history; she has always been on the side of Africa’s dictators and strongmen.
President Obama is requesting the Senate’s advice and consent for Ms. Smith to become USAID Administrator.
It is time for the Senate to withhold consent on Smith’s confirmation
and advise the President to send a nominee who is on the right side of
history, on the right side of the rule of law, on the right side of
democracy and on the right side of human rights.
It is time to reject a nominee who is on the side of dictators, strongmen and thugs who cling to power by the barrel of the gun.
For Africa, Senate confirmation of Ms. Smith at this moment will be
the equivalent of moving the clock of history backwards for freedom,
democracy and human rights.
I trust you will remain true to your promise in your July 16 Letter to President Obama and block Ms. Smith’s confirmation.
Regards,
Alemayehu (Al) Mariam, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor of Political Science &
Attorney at Law
Department of Political Science
California State University, San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA 92402
